Music Box of Life
The butterfly effect meets spot-the-difference in this three-part series of puzzle games by FunBunGames. Through the magic of suspension-of-disbelief, a blithly thoughtless young lady learns that cruelty toward fluttery insects can result in either unhappy pairings with the town bully or romantic picnics with sensitive artists. The story unfolds as you scan through each scene looking for the cleverly-rendered differences. Changes are random so you can play again and again. As it turns out, chaos theory is actually quite fun!
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Game of the week
Lots of neat stuff here:
-very pretty artwork
-love how some things change position rather than just appearing/disappearing
-strange but interesting story
So...what I'm trying to figure out is--is this like the Gwyneth Paltrow movie sliding doors?
What I see is that in the universe in which she pins the butterfly, the boy is appalled by her, but thinks maybe he'll give her another shot and finds out she's just as spoiled and shallow as ever, while in the universe where she brings the live butterfly to show him, the blond guy ends up being the bully she never dates and they end up together from childhood.
Other thoughts?
how come i never ever make it in time to comment first!? I'm only 28 minutes late!
*sniffle* this is a beautifully made, adorable mushy little girly game. I loved every second of it. The puzzles were just the right level of difficulty, and the hint feature was much appreciated. I liked the abilty to decide whether the differences went or stayed in both pitires. I wished there had been a bit more explanation of
the girl leaving the blond dude
but it was still great and the storyline was easy to follow. I also really enjoyed it because
the girl looks like me and the brunette guy looks like my crush!
AAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWsies!!! loooved this game 5 shrooms
Both game #2 and #3 caused major crashes (as in blue screen of death) on my Windows XP virtual machine. Updating Flash had no effect.
[Hi Reka, I've never heard of how a specific game itself could cause an issue but maybe Jay knows if it has something to do with Flash or Java. Did you try using a different browser? ~elle]
Thanks for the feedback, everyone!
Meg,
I saw it as an alternative reality, kind of like The Family Man with Nick Cage or, better, more like the movie dsrtrosy mentioned, Sliding Doors. So...
I'm thinking the girl doesn't actually leave the blond bully so much as, in some alter ego, she simply was never with him.
Or, it seems to be vaguely suggested that the music box gave her a second choice, showed her how her life would be "If only..."
Hmmm... considering that it is called Music Box of Life, it's probably meant to be that second option which makes the music box more integral.
Are there other thoughts/interpretations?
Nice, simple, and refreshing. I loved the art, and the storyline was interesting. Definitely a relaxing little addition to a sometimes stressful genre.
Well, enjoyable and relaxing atmosphere, differences subtle yet noticeable enough so the game isn't frustrating.
Too bad the story is sappy and naive as a Meg Ryan movie. Judging by the premise, I was really looking forward to something more interesting and clever.
baba44713, I disagree. This game shows imagination and sensitivity. Not sappy or naive at all. I'd like to know if the creator has done anything else.
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